By Donna Hemmila

UC applications for fall 2009 have reached all-time records despite an expected leveling off of California high school graduates and university plans to curtail freshman enrollment by 2,300.

"The rapid growth we see in high school graduates is slowing down, but we did see a slight increase in applications," said Susan Wilbur, UC director of undergraduate admissions. "It's good news for us to see so many students want a University of California education."

A total of 98,002 students applied for admission as freshmen in fall 2009, a 2.9 percent increase over last year. Most of those students – 80,730 – are California residents. Although demographic forecasts show California's recent boomlet of high school-age students beginning to decline, resident freshman applications increased by 1.6 percent. Freshman applications from out-of-state students increased 2 percent while international applications jumped 28.9 percent. Read details of all application statistics at www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2009/09app.html.

Transfer applications rise. Applications among transfer students increased 11.2 percent to 28,699. Out-of-state transfer applications dropped 7.8 percent, and international transfer applications rose 19.9 percent.

"We welcome growth in transfer students particularly from California community colleges," said Wilbur.

UC has been making an effort to increase the number of California transfer students as a way to increase access for low-income students. Efforts include boosting fall '09 admission spots by 500 while freshman admissions will be curtailed. More UC counselors have been deployed to California community college campuses, said Wilbur, and the university is expanding its guaranteed transfer programs to more campuses.

Freshman enrollment cap. On Jan. 14, UC Regents approved a proposal from President Mark Yudof to cut freshman enrollment by 2,300 students to cope with the chronic decline in state funding.

"It is an excruciating decision to reduce opportunity for students in any way, but the lack of sufficient state funding leaves us no choice," Yudof told the Regents. "This actually is a modest reduction in that it aims to bring our enrollments into line with our resources over several years rather than in a single year."

Currently, UC has 11,000 students enrolled for which it receives no state funding. That resulted in a shortfall of $121.8 million. Even after the 2,300 enrollment cut, UC will still be significantly overenrolled in fall.

UC still will maintain its commitment to offer every eligible California resident a place at a UC campus, said Wilbur, but eligible students may find they are not admitted to the campuses for which they applied. That will likely lead to some deciding not to enroll at a UC campus.

Application trends. The economic downturn may be causing families to keep their students closer to home. All UC campuses saw an increase in total applications except UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz. More students may be wanting to attend universities close to home so they can commute to classes and save money on housing, Wilbur said. Those two campuses are more residential and less conducive to commuting than others.

The largest increases in total applications were seen at UC Riverside (7.4 percent), UC Davis (5.4 percent) and UC Irvine (5.2 percent). The Riverside and Irvine campuses are located in densely populated areas with high numbers of high school seniors, said Wilbur, and that could account for their application jumps. UC Davis, she said, has many unique academic programs (viticulture, veterinary medicine, organic farming) and demand for that campus is always high.

Donna Hemmila is editor of Our University.